This world-premiere production of playwright Paul Rudnick’s comedy is described as follows: “It is the night of the Oscars and a working actor turned Oscar nominee knows that his life is about to change — he just doesn’t know how profoundly. His transgender nephew has plans for his speech, his young agent has plans for his future, his unstoppable mother has plans for the catering, and his partner is nowhere to be found. Master satirist Paul Rudnick blends a deep humanity with a honed sense of hilarity in this powerful and funny play about family and fame, the personal and the political, and the drive to stand up and speak out.”

The creative team includes set design by John Lee Beatty, costume design by William Ivey Long, and lighting design by Ken Billington. Casting is by James Calleri and Paul Davis. Brooke Baldwin is the production stage manager.

Wendie Malick and Brian Hutchison will be part of the ensemble of the Walter Bobbie-directed production.

Brian Hutchison will star in Center Theatre Group’s world premiere production of Paul Rudnick’s Big Night.
(photo provided by the production)

Center Theatre Group announced the cast for the world premiere of Paul Rudnick’s new play Big Night, running September 10-October 8 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, with opening night set for September 16.

The cast includes Brian Hutchison (Smokefall), Max Jenkins (NBC’s The Mysteries of Laura), Luke Macfarlane (ABC’s Brothers & Sisters), Wendie Malick (NBC’s Just Shoot Me!), and Tom Phelan (ABC Family’s The Fosters). One more cast member will be announced later.

Directed by Walter Bobbie (Bright Star), the creative team includes John Lee Beatty (set design), William Ivey Long (costume design), Ken Billington (lighting design), James Calleri and Paul Davis (casting), and Brooke Baldwin (stage manager). The sound designer will be announced later.

The play is described as follows in a press release: “It is the night of the Oscars, and a working actor-turned-Oscar nominee knows that his life is about to change — he just doesn’t know how profoundly. His transgender nephew has plans for his speech, his young agent has plans for his future, his unstoppable mother has plans for the catering, and his partner is nowhere to be found.”

Tomorrow night on Killjoys, Johnny gets himself in way, way, way over his head, Dutch and D’avin audition a few nerds, and we get a VIP first-time meeting.

Nothing in that sentence prepares you for the AWESOMENESS that is Viktoria Modesta going full-on Bond villainess as Niko, a Hackmod with a really, really creepy agenda, or the seriously genius twist that Michelle Lovretta crafted into the episode.

Photo Credit: Ian Watson/Killjoys III Productions Limited/Syfy

As Johnny Basic and Ollie Ollie Anna (still in love with that) keep working on Clara’s disappearance and thwarting Niko’s mwa ha ha-ing, we’re treated to their fun repartee with a side of some extra-squishy gore, but since it’s mostly green, where does that land on the gore-meter? Maybe make your viewing food choices wisely?

Photo Credit: Killjoys III Productions Limited/Syfy

The trio of nerds that Dutch and D’avin put through their paces at the behest of a still delightfully crusty Turin are played by Continuum alumn Erik Knudsen (also on The Mist this week), Luc Trottier, and spoiler alert if you’re not on social media, new recurring cast member Kelly McCormack as Zeph.

I talked to Aaron Ashmore about tonight’s episode and he and Luke Macfarlane about the expanding universe of the show. So far, Johnny’s been the only one to dive into the Hackmod world, and Ashmore says it’s been fantastic to add the new faces because they’re fully-realized characters.

“It’s amazing. There’s nothing worse…it doesn’t happen all the time, but [sometimes on a show], the supporting characters and guest actors come in and don’t step up to the plate or the characters aren’t that interesting or engaging, so they feel like their characters are there just for exposition. In our show, I don’t think that’s the case at all,” he shares.

Photo Credit: Ian Watson/Killjoys III Productions Limited/Syfy

“In Michelle’s ability to write and create characters that obviously serve a function and are incredibly interesting and three-dimensional, and in the casting of these characters, the actors that our casting directors find for the show are incredible. As an actor getting to see this and knowing when these characters are introduced, we’re going to have someone really, really strong to play with and characters that will allow us as characters to showcase different aspects of our personality, that’s really, really nice.”

“I know we’re going to have good stuff to do and they’re going to have good stuff to do. I think when actors go out for Killjoys, they’re super excited because the characters that are created for them are interesting.”

In tomorrow’s episode, Johnny drops deep down into a Hackmod rabbit hole. “He goes in undercover, and as with many Killjoys missions, things go awry and John ends up in some trouble, but [spoiler alert] he makes it through. I must have pissed the writers off last year at some point because I get beat up and tortured many, many times in Season 3, so this is the first of many John Jaqobi beatdowns,” he laughs.

“John’s always up for pushing the limits and getting his hands dirty. He doesn’t always do it when he’s with Dutch and D’av because they usually go in and do more of the butt-kicking and actual legwork. I don’t think that John is at all afraid to get his hands dirty, especially when he feels like somebody’s in trouble or something needs to get done.”

Photo Credit: Ian Watson/Killjoys III Productions Limited/Syfy

“I think he’s been forced into this caretaker position so many times. That’s what he falls back on. That’s what he knows. That’s what he does. I think that’s a huge part of who he is–taking care of other people and doing the right thing, and he’s always had to do that.”

As we saw in last week’s premiere, Dutch and D’avin are now working closely with former foes and now frenemies Fancy and Turin. Macfarlane says that’s been a ball, and there’s some truth in the way Fancy and D’av relate to each other. “[Their] dynamic is definitely something that Michelle has in mind. It’s funny, because I adore Sean [Baek] and he’s so great, but we are just the most different people, from the way we approach our work to the way we interact with social media,” he says.

“There’s a kernel of truth in, ‘I don’t get you man, but we’re going to work together.’ I don’t want to give too much away, but I ask for Fancy’s help in a very open and earnest way and I come to his defense and it builds to a really lovely reconciliation, I guess you could say. We’ll see how long that lasts.”

Photo Credit: Ian Watson/Killjoys III Productions Limited/Syfy

While D’av and Fancy find equal footing, things will be bumpier for D’av and Turin. “They come to a pretty serious head. Turin is going down [a dark path] and some of his tactics are, for lack of a better word, a breach of the Geneva Convention and D’avin is a bit of a moral authority and calls him out on that,” he says.

On the lighter side of things, Macfarlane says Patrick Garrow is very accommodating about all the quips about his fabulous hair, including the “Don’t take your haircut out on me” line in the opener that I was sure had an outtake of Garrow breaking character. “He’s very professional on set. I honestly don’t know how he handles all the insults about his hair,” Macfarlane says. “That’s not the first or last insult [this season].”

Check back in the coming weeks for more from my chats with Ashmore and Macfarlane about Season 3. Killjoysairs Fridays at 10/9c on Syfy in the US and Space in Canada. Here’s a sneak peek of “A Skinner, Darkly.” Pay attention to that title.

Feminists are not just women. At its core, feminism is advocating for and believing that men and women should have have equal rights and opportunities, and men are just as important to that cause as women. I’ve often praised and held up strong feminist series such as Wynonna Earp and Killjoys for the way they write and deliver multiple layered, diverse, complicated women that serve as the core of their shows. However, one reason these series are such great feminist examples is the way the male characters on both of the shows are written.

Both showrunners, Emily Andras and Michelle Lovretta, are doing something that feels unique with their male characters. The men of Wynonna and Killjoys are written in a way that proves a strong, feminist woman can be at the core of your show, but that she doesn’t necessarily have to persevere despite constant undermining and doubt from the men around her. Instead, male characters can be feminists as well, and lift up these female heroines by treating them as equals and supporting them — emotionally as well as physically. It’s also nice to see Friday night lineup mate Dark Matter, while much more of an ensemble than female-led show, closely follow these ideals as well, often foregoing gender stereotypes in favor of developing well-rounded characters.

Men such as Doc Holliday, Xavier Dolls and the Jaqobis brothers not only want heroines like Wynonna Earp and Dutch to make their own choices, such as facing off against a sister who may have gone to the dark side or a Big Bad who may be her father, but they also trust them completely to do so. To go one step further, even after a decision has been made, these men support their ladies. While Wynonna and Dutch both have some sort of supernatural abilities about them, whether it’s a magical gun or connection to a mystical green plasma, the boys on their teams trust them to wield the power and never once try to rip it away from them. They are perfectly content to admit how much more powerful and well suited for the top spot both Wynonna and Dutch are, and there’s no doubting or not listening when the women are doling out the orders.

@BridgetOnTV

Now, just because these male characters fully support the female ones does not mean they don’t have a fully fleshed out storyline of their own, it’s just not THE story. Wynonna Earp and Killjoys’ driving story arcs have always been reserved for Wynonna and Dutch, and rightfully so, as they are the main characters of their respective shows. Doc now owns Shorty’s, Dolls is trying to figure out what exactly he is, D’avin yearns to be more than just the muscle and John has to move on from Pawter. These are all interesting and layered story arcs, but they aren’t taking over the show and crowding out the ladies who, always have plenty of room to take center stage. Wynonna Earp will always be about Wynonna and Killjoys at its core is always about Dutch, these stories from the male characters never overshadow or threaten that concept.

In our society young boys and men are taught to dominate, that power is gained by exerting strength and using it over others. However, the Wynonna and Killjoys men prove that one can still be powerful and masculine even when they cannot overpower the women by their side. Doc Holliday is one of history’s best sharp shooters, yet it’s Wynonna who always takes the final shot. While John and D’avin make up integral parts of the team, at the end of the day the final call is always resting upon Dutch’s shoulders. The men of these two series realize the important aspects they bring to the team. Things like knowing their way around space tech or having a background in tactical operations, are truly valuable skills to have and they give these men a firm grasp on their self esteem in the process. That pride and self worth allows them to admire and appreciate the female characters on their shows without feeling insecure in their own worth as a man.

http://ms-jully.tumblr.com

As is the case with most representation issues on television, the more we see of a certain group of individuals, in this case male feminists, the more likely it is that others will see them too and hopefully, follow their example. Yes, we really love and need characters like Wynonna or Dutch, but it’s also really important to appreciate the Doc Hollidays, the Xavier Dolls and the Jaqobis brothers of the world. A minority cannot get ahead without the support of the majority, and while I’m sorry to make everyone do some math, that’s just the truth.

There’s too many examples in our everyday society of men wanting to rip down, shame and negate a woman who has a little bit of power. Not the men of Wynonna Earp or Killjoys. Hopefully other shows will sit up and take notice that while both these shows are delivering some of the best female characters on the same small screen, their boys aren’t too shabby either. Feminism isn’t just for women and it’s great to see these male characters embodying so many feminist characteristics. We need more men like it, not just on TV, but in the world in general. Men who will fight, support and respect women because really in the end, feminism benefits us all.

Do you love the men of Wynonna Earp and Killjoys as much as us? Add your thoughts in the comments below!

Who’s ready for some American Ninja Warrior – The Night Shift season 4 synergy coming up? We’ve got that courtesy of Akbar Gbajabiamila.

NBC confirmed recently that the co-host of Ninja Warrior will be appearing on the upcoming July 20 episode entitled “Turbulence,” a story that will feature this celebrity cameo through the lens of a charity fundraiser. For a little bit more news on that, just take a look at the synopsis below:

The presence of Akbar is a smart move from NBC trying to use one show to promote the other — given that The Night Shift is perpetually a bubble show, we’ll take any opportunity possible to see a little bit of further synergy here. To go along with that further, American Ninja Warrior is one of the network’s top-rated summer shows, and given that many of the doctors and nurses are in pretty good shape on this show, the crossover makes some sense. It’s at least a little more feasible than them attempting to do some sort of America’s Got Talent crossover where Jordan and Paul try to keep Simon Cowell from pushing his buzzer.

This isn’t even the first time we’ve seen American Ninja Warrior cross over with a different NBC show — just remember Dr. Matt Iseman being entertaining as hell on The Celebrity Apprentice earlier this year … and winning it to go along with it?

As for the other stories…

The one that immediately stands out to us is that we’re going to get a chance to see Luke MacFarlane back on the show, given his appearances on the show are reasonably few and far between thanks to other commitments. The story that he’s thrown into is a little familiar for medical dramas given that airplane rescues do make for exciting bottle-episode-esque storylines.

As for what’s going on with Scott and the Tinder date, that just sounds all sorts of hilarious and we’re here for whatever happens as a result of it.

Want more The Night Shift news?

Whether it be our review of the most-recent episode or a further preview for what is coming up next, you can get all of that over at the link here! One other thing worth noting is that there will be an exclusive interview up at the site with J.R. Lemon before the next new episode. With that one, you’ll get a tease of what’s ahead for Kenny the rest of the season. (Photo: NBC.)

If Killjoys‘ first episode is any indication, Season 3 is going to kick some serious ass. And why not? Creator Michelle Lovretta and her writing team set up exactly this scenario in the Season 2 finale, as Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen) announced an all-out war against Aneela.

“Boondoggie,” returning Friday at 9 p.m. ET on Space, picks up with Dutch, D’avin (Luke McFarlane) and Johnny (Aaron Ashmore) doing their part to get the showdown started with some key help from Pree (Thom Allison) and Alvis (Morgan Kelly). With guest stars like Viktoria Modesta, Tommie-Amber Pirie and Karen LeBlanc jetting into The Quad, we got Lovretta on the phone to set the stage for what promises to be one hells of a great season.

Congratulations on Season 3 of Killjoys. You’re back on Friday nights this summer and Wynonna Earp is part of the lineup on Space.
Michelle Lovretta: I’m super excited. It’s funny, having Emily as a dear friend on this journey and having her on Killjoysit’s kind of a delicious treat that we’re going to airing as sister shows, effectively, on the same night. It’s a small world in the best of ways.

When we last left the group Khlyen had died, D’avin and Fancy were trading quips, Johnny and Clara were off in Khlyen’s ship and the tree is no more. Where do we pick up on Friday night? Is it right after the events of the Season 2 finale?
It is not right after, but I would say the emotional stakes have a very clear continuity with where we left everybody. We’ve taken a little breath and allowed a little time to pass. The stakes remain what Aneela’s ultimate game plan is and assessing their best approach to turning a gang of Killjoy rebels into a valid militia force against the Hullen.

It’s always fun to train people who don’t really know how to fight how to fight.
Exactly. And these are brawlers. The thing I’ve always loved about Killjoys from the beginning is the take no sides, take no bribes. It allows you to divorce yourself from a whole lot of thorny issues in terms of whether you are on the right side or the wrong side. Now, they’re no longer given that freedom. Now they not only have to take a side but have to try to talk other people into taking a side and trying to get people who were in it for a buck to be in it for the fight. It’s an interesting challenge but, honestly, I can’t think of anybody in our world that would be better suited for it than the combination of Dutch, D’av and Johnny because they are different people with different approaches and we get to see that tragically, comically and lovingly play out this season.

But just because someone says they’re on your side doesn’t mean they really are.
Exactly. It’s true. And one of the things we’re exploring this season is that it’s about loyalties and about your self-definition. I love to live in the grey, not because I don’t there is evil and good because I do, but that it’s contextual in a lot of ways. There are people who are very good to their loved ones and those loved ones never know how savage they are. That’s sort of the complexity of what it is to be human and that’s what has sort of fascinated me about the relationship between Dutch and Khlyen. We saw that play out last year because I thought it was really important. There was an abusive, manipulative side to that relationship and it was toxic. She needed to deal with that and also deal with, in her definition, love and support and protection. That’s what makes life and relationships so complicated. This season that spreads out into her relationships with other people as well.

Is Aneela the big villain this season? Is she the focus?
There are definitely other challenges. Aneela is, I would say, the architect of many of those. She is colluding from afar at first and that gives our people time to regroup. There are other villains closer at hand at times. And we still have the structure that I love, which is a great adventure at its heart and a story that resolves itself neatly, but feeds into and broadens the greater season-long arc.

Last season you suggested Pree’s warlord history. Do you touch on that this season?
Let me just say the title of Episode 4 is “The Lion, The Witch and The Warlord.” [Laughs.] Pree fans may read into that what they will.

Thom has been so great in this role.
He is amazing and we love the secondary characters. It always feels odd in my mouth to call them secondary. While we can’t always give them a full story we always want to keep them close to hand and close to heart and I think we do that very handily this season. We have more Fancy, we have more Alvis, we have some surprise people that you may not be expecting. We have some new people as well because, frankly, that’s such a joy for us. Because I love our core three so much, one of the things that is fun to do is give them new energy to play against.

Viktoria Modesta is a guest star in Season 3 as Niko. Viktoria is an artist, singer and an amputee. What can you say about her character?
I’m super-excited about Viktoria joining us and the character of Niko. It was our opportunity to bring to life this very unique, very sexy, very glamorous aspirational character. She certainly has her sexy villain side because I find that appealing. But even within the time she is with us, we have also given her her own perspective and a credible rationalization for the things that she does. She is somebody that Johnny butts heads with in Episode 2 and I think it was possibly the first time that Viktoria had appeared on television, and she was an incredibly passionate and quick study. We wanted to make sure that the Hackmod world was legitimate and we brought in actors that believably belonged in those roles but at the same time didn’t make it a dark and unhappy place. They have a badassery to them.

Were the Hackmods something you always had in the back of your mind when you were creating Killjoys or did they evolve during production?
They came to me in Season 1. I went back, actually, and found a lot of clippings that I had gone through. People with gun legs and modifications on human bodies. It’s something I find very interesting when you’re thinking about the future and how we’re going to be hacking our own bodies. I think it’s part of our journey, as humans. And then it becomes, as a writer, what does that do to them culturally? Legally? What does that do to their rights and norms? Who are the outcasts?

What can you tell me about Karen LeBlanc’s role this season?
Can I just say how gorgeous she is? Every time I’m editing and she comes on screen I ask if I can have the footage rolled back one more time. [Laughs.] She plays an antagonist to our team. When we come back the RAC that operates as business as usual realizes a bunch of agents have gone missing when Dutch went ahead and killed the Arkyn pool. Banyon has a completely correct suspicion that Dutch and team are somehow at the heart of this and she is definitely, ‘Let’s pull back the curtain and take a poke at Dutch.’

What can fans expect when they tune in this season? What will they see?
One of the things we lay out is the complete origin story between Dutch and her connection to Aneela. You also are going to see Pree at his best and his warlord past. You are going to see Dutch and John on the day they met. You’re going to see a lot of tasty things that as, as writers, we waited for the right time for. We didn’t want to just throw them out in the first season, but have been pining to do ever since.

Cast member Luke Macfarlane speaks at a panel for the television series “Killjoys” during a NBC summer press day in Pasadena, California April 2, 2015. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

The “Killjoys” cast including Luke Macfarlane as D’avin Jaqobis, Hannah John-Kamen as Yalena “Yala” Yardeen aka Dutch/Aneela and Aaron Ashmore as John Andras “Johnny” Jaqobis, will have a new episode titled “Boondoggie,” which is the show’s Season 3 premiere episode. It airs on Syfy on Friday, June 30. It will feature D’avin and Dutch’s search for a special weapon. Read on to learn more about it.

Spoiler alert: This update contains more ‘Killjoys’ spoilers. Read on only if you want to know more about what happens in ‘Boondoggie.’

According to a press release from Syfy, D’avin and Dutch will be searching for a weapon that can draw out the Hullen. They will be aided by a black market dealer. Meanwhile, Johnny will receive a distress signal from Clara (Stephanie Leonidas). This will lead him to enter the Hackmods’ underground world.

The episode before “Boondoggie” was the “Killjoys” Season 3 Finale episode titled “How to Kill Friends and Influence People,” which aired on Sept. 2, 2016. It was directed by Peter Stebbings and written by Jeremy Boxen and Michelle Lovretta.

It showed a flashback of Khlyen (Rob Stewart) as a scientist who thought plasma was a super-fertilizer that can be used for growing food. Unfortunately, it woke up an ancient darkness in Aneela.

Eventually, Khlyen told the team about the plasma’s sentience. It’s called the Hullen once it bonds with a human. Khlyen was also able to develop a toxin that can kill the plasma and its source. They also must kill a unique tree. Khlyen ended up sacrificing himself to kill the tree.

It turns out Aneela is the leader of the Hullen and that they must take over the Quad to fulfill an old arrangement with the original Nine. As for Johnny, he was informed that Pawter (Sarah Power) was already dead. He also shot Delle Seyah (Mayko Nguyen). Plus, Fancy (Sean Baek) was turned back into a human.

‘Killjoys’ episodes

The episodes after “Boondoggie” are “A Skinner, Darkly” (air date: July 7), “The Hullen Have Eyes” (air date: July 14), “The Lion, the Witch & the Warlord” (air date: July 21), “Attack the Rack” (air date: July 28) and “Bug in an Elevator” (air date: Aug. 4). After these, the episodes titled “The Wolf You Feed,” “Heist, Heist Baby,” “Reckoning Ball” and “Wargasm” will air next on Syfy.

“Killjoys” airs in Syfy Australia. It also airs in the US on Syfy every Friday at 8/7c.

This delightful summer series, which begins its third season June 30, completes one of my favorite 2017 programming blocks. For the next month or two, Friday nights on Syfy will consist of “Killjoys,” followed by “Dark Matter” and “Wynonna Earp.” All three are enjoyable in their own ways (check out my recent enthusiastic recommendation for all things “Earp”), and together they supply a whole lot of quip-intensive, well-crafted genre fun.

“Killjoys” tells the story of bounty hunters in a distant galaxy, and if you are my kind of person, in order to check it out, all you need to hear is this phrase: space bounty hunters.

Lucky for us, “Killjoys,” which is a co-production with Canada’s SPACE, uses that premise to create believable worlds, give shading to solid characters and nuanced relationships, and tell smart stories that touch on matters of politics, culture, co-existence, and love. As I wrote in my intro-level appreciation of the show last year, “‘Killjoys’ has flirtatious banter, a spaceship run by a tartly intelligent AI, a politically active religious order, ‘Orphan Black’-style meditations on extreme body modifications, simmering romances, a charismatic bartender, a mysterious order called ‘Level Six’ and explosions on alien worlds. Seriously, do I need to go on?”

The fizzy (and dangerous) fun continues this year, as the trio at the core of the show — John (Aaron Ashmore), Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen), and D’avin (Luke Macfarlane) — leave the sidelines and take sides as their corner of the galaxy hovers “on the brink of a bloody, multi-planetary class war,” according to the show’s press notes.

As the season gets underway, John gets an S.O.S. from the gang’s new friend, Clara, and that leads him into an underground world of tech-savvy “hackmods,” and Dutch and Davin also have to find someone to temporarily replace John on their ship, Lucy. Dutch and D’avin also persuade a shady black-market dealer to help them.

Well, persuade might be the wrong verb for what transpires in the clip below. There’s punching. So much punching.